Rocktober '80s Song #14: "Texas Flood" by Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble (1983)

Rock music in the '80s was fantastic for many reasons, but one of those reasons is that a blues throwback like Stevie Ray Vaughan could have mainstream success.  Vaughan was one of those guitar wunderkinds who couldn't read music and was essentially self-taught.  

With his excellent backing band Double Trouble -- Tommy Shannon on bass and Chris Layton on drums, with the later addition of Reese Wynans on keyboards -- and his beat-up Strat with "SRV" emblazoned on the body, just below the strings, Vaughan took the guitar world by storm essentially playing the blues and blues-based rock at a time when that wasn't exactly in fashion.  Of course, it didn't hurt that this young guy from Texas had a voice that sounded like a grizzled old bluesman.

Vaughan and Double Trouble released four studio albums between their 1983 debut and Vaughan's unfortunate death in a helicopter crash in 1990 after a show at Alpine Valley in southern Wisconsin.  All of the albums are great, and I highly recommend them all if you enjoy rock and roll, electric blues, or the combination of the two.

I had a lot of great songs to choose from, and initially, I was leaning towards a couple of their songs that trended more towards rock than the blues -- like "The House is Rockin'," "Couldn't Stand the Weather," "Rude Mood," or "Crossfire" -- but then I said to myself, Look, you rat dick son of a bitch, if you don't go with "Texas Flood," you will regret it every single day for the rest of your life, to which I replied, Every single day for the rest of my life? That seems a little extreme.  Hell, I don't even remember what I did yesterday, to which I replied, You ate a Sloppy Joe for lunch, forced the kids to watch a Disney made-for-TV movie from the '80s called Mr. Boogedy before dinner, which you found delightfully charming, if not completely unrealistic -- I mean, come on, ghosts?! -- and then did 1,000 pushups because you were angry about how Josh Allen and Ezekiel Elliott shit the bed in their respective American football games, to which I replied, You know me better than I do, and you're right.  About the Sloppy Joe.  About Mr. Boogedy.  About "Texas Flood."  About everything.  Well, not the pushups.

Originally recorded by bluesman Larry Davis in 1958, Vaughan and Double Trouble stretch "Texas Flood" from a two-and-a half-minute song to over five minutes, allowing the band to jam a little more and Vaughan to show off his licks.  It's one of my favorite songs by the band.